For example, said material can be used inside a cooling system. It should be remembered that different cooling systems are known which promote evaporation of the water for the purposes, for example, of cooling air to the wet-bulb temperature of the air. Said cooling systems can be classified into direct and indirect systems. In the former, the flow of air in which water is evaporated in order to cool it is introduced directly into the environment to be cooled; in this case, however, the water vapour content of the environment to be cooled is increased. To remedy this drawback indirect systems are used where a second internal air circuit is cooled by a first external air circuit in which water is evaporated. However, the exchange of heat between the two air flows requires bulky and costly air-air or water-air-water exchangers.
To maximize evaporation of the water in direct and indirect cooling systems, the use of “water curtains” is known, or nebulizers (which nevertheless require an energy supply) or the water is contained in absorbing materials, like natural or synthetic sponges, through which an air flow is passed.
However, the sponges of known type have numerous drawbacks including that of causing a large part of the liquid contained inside to drip out by gravity (gravity water). In other words, once wetted, the absorbing material (i.e. the sponges) of known type is not able to retain the liquid inside it, avoiding percolation of the water to the outside, by gravity. Therefore, the absorbing material of known type cannot be used in environments in which it is necessary to avoid or prevent the presence of free liquids, for example environments in which electrical material is present.
The overall dimensions and cost of the heat exchangers in indirect cooling systems also makes it uneconomical to use systems like the cascade systems cited above via which, otherwise, it could also be possible to reach a final temperature lower than the wet-bulb temperature of the ambient air obtained with the direct cooling systems.
An example of a direct cooling system is provided in the document US 2010/0281896 A1 where an air flow to be cooled is sucked through wet cellulose honeycomb cell elements.
An example of an indirect cooling system is described in WO2013/021147 A1. Another example of an indirect cooling system is known, for example, from the document WO 2012/168929 A2. However, the material described in WO 2012/168929 A2 and the relative cooling system have the drawback of providing limited energy efficiency since the element of material described has a limited capacity to induce the evaporation/dissociation of the water and, therefore, is not able to generate sufficient frigories, resulting in limited energy efficiency.
Furthermore, the material described in WO 2012/168929 A2 in order to function must be heated at least on one side and/or exposed to the sun.
In the state of the art there are no materials that enable, among other things, the creation of particularly efficient cooling systems and/or also useful for the evaporation of water and/or the dissociation of water and/or production of hydrogen and/or absorption of water and/or ascension of water and/or filtering of water.